Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Shiva in the Yoga Vasistha

In the early days, when the so-called Vedic age was at its peak,
great Maharishis orally imparted their wisdom unto their disciples. For a long
time, these teachings were memorized by the pupils and passed on to their own
disciples, but not in written form. However, a time arose (traditionally speaking
the beginning of Kaliyuga) when teachings were being forgotten and had to be
committed to writing for the sake of posterity.
At such a time, these original teachings of the Maharishis were
recorded in the form of conversations, discussions, and question-and-answer
sessions (cf, many of the early Upanishads). As the centuries passed, this
format of writing became so popular and venerated that gurus could no longer impart
their original teachings in an independent manner, but had to record it in the form of a dialog from remote antiquity, spoken by a great authority for it to be
accepted. Hence the narration format became immensely important and popular.
Most post-Vedic texts are, therefore, presented as narrations.
If the narrator were not a great sage from remote antiquity, it
had to be a greater Guru yet. So, who better to have narrate than the Guru of
all gurus, the original Teacher, the primal Guru, the One from whom all
traditions descend, Shiva, the personified Lord Himself, the highest
Reality? Such is the case in hundreds of holy books including most of the
Agama-Tantras.
Below is an excerpt from the Yoga Vasistha, an important text of
non-dualism from pre-Shankaran times. Although it is presented as a narration
between Lord Rama and Sage Vasistha, the part below is presented as a teaching
from Shiva for added emphasis and authority.
The teaching below is on the Self, the only existence, the only reality. The
core teaching is that the Consciousness is the ground of all reality – a teaching
that is common to all non-dualist schools of thought (Vedantic and Shaivite). Shaivite
non-dual schools of thought would additionally say that this Consciousness
(Chit), call it Brahman (Parabrahma) or Paramashiva, apart from being the ultimate Truth
(Sat), Light (Prakasha), Knowledge (Jnana), and Bliss (Ananda), is neverstill, but brimming of self-reflective activity (Vimarsha). In that sense, the
nature of the phenomenal world cannot be considered unreal, but as the self-reflective activity of Paramashiva.

-----

Shiva said:

There being only empty consciousness in existence, beyond all
limits, it is impossible for an intelligible object to exist anywhere which may
continue to all eternity. That which shines of itself is the self-shining
Being. It is the Self, the spontaneous agitation of that Being, which has
stretched out the universe. Thus the world appears like a city in dream before
the conscious soul. This soul is only a form of empty consciousness and this
world is only a baseless fabric.
It is altogether impossible for any perceptible phenomena to exist
anywhere except in the empty sphere of consciousness. Creation is whatever
shone forth in the beginning in the plenitude of Divine Consciousness.
Therefore this world which shows itself in the form of a fairyland in dream is
only an appearance in the empty sphere of Consciousness. It cannot be any other
in reality.
Consciousness is human speech and the cosmos that supports the
world.Consciousness becomes the soul and the living principle. It forms
the chain of created beings. Tell me, what else could know all things in the
beginning and even before creation of the universe, except the consciousness
which saw and exhibited everything in heaven and earth as contained in itself?The words “sky”, “firmament” and the “emptiness” of Brahman and
the world all apply to consciousness, just like the words “tree” and “tree”
mean the same thing. And as both dreams and desires arise in us by our
delusion, so only our illusion in the empty space of consciousness makes us
perceive the existence of an outer world.
Our empty consciousness shows the sight of the external world in
our dream. The same thing shows us the world in our waking dream. It is not
possible for a city in a dream to be seen anywhere except in the hollow space
of our consciousness. In the same way, it is impossible for the waking
dream of the world to be shown anywhere except in the emptiness of
consciousness.As it is not possible for anything that can be thought of to exist
anywhere except in the thinking mind, so it is impossible for this thinkable
world to exist in any place other than the Divine Mind. The triple world rose
of itself at the will and in the empty space of Supreme Consciousness, like a
dream rising and setting in the mind, and not as anything other than Supreme
Consciousness or any duality beside Supreme Consciousness.
As one sees the diverse appearances of pots and paintings in his
dream, all lying within the hollowness of his mind, so at the beginning of
creation, the world appears of itself in the emptiness of Divine Consciousness.
As there is no substantiality of anything in the fairyland of one’s dreams
except his pure consciousness of the objects, so there is no substantiality of
anything seen in this triple world, except our consciousness of them.Whatever is visible to sight, and all that exists or does not
exist in the present, past or future, and all space, time and mind are nothing
other than appearances in the empty consciousness of Brahman. Brahman is truly
the God of whom I have spoken. Only He is supreme in its transcendental sense.
He is all and unbounded and includes me, you and the endless world in Himself.
The bodies of all created beings, whether yours, mine, or others,
and of all in this world are all full with the consciousness of the Supreme
Soul and no other. As there is nothing, O sage, except the bodies produced from
the empty consciousness of Brahman resembling images produced in the fairyland
of one’s dream, so there is no form or figure in this world other than what was
made in the beginning of creation.

Yoga Vasistha, Book VI [Part I] Chap 30:133-151

[Shiva continues:]

O most intelligent sage, know that the God we adore is the true
God, the receptacle of the three worlds, the Supreme Spirit and no other. He is
Shiva, the joy, who is above the ranks of all other Gods and beyond all of
men’s fictions and fictitious images. He is accompanied with all desires and is
the enjoyer of neither all or any part of the production of His will. He is
full of imaginations of all things, but is neither the all nor any one of the
objects in his mind.

He encompasses all space and time, and is neither divided nor
circumscribed by either. He manifests all events and things, and is nothing
except the image of pure Consciousness Himself. He is undivided consciousness
situated in the heart of everything. He produces and absorbs everything in
himself.

Know Brahman is situated between existence and inexistence. It is
He who [is] called God, the Supreme Soul, the transcendental, TAT SAT, and the
syllable AUM. By his nature of immensity, He spreads alike in all space. Being
the great Consciousness himself, He is said to be transcendent and the Supreme
Being. He remains as All in all places, just as sap circulates through the
bodies of plants. The great soul of the Supreme Being similarly extends as the
common entity of all things.

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Aum Namah Shivaya. Shiva Darshana explores Shaivite theology, philosophy and tradition from the viewpoint of various schools, texts, and teachers. Shiva Darshana also reflects the blogger's personal experience with the Path to Shiva. All original writings (articles and poems) on this site are copyrighted and licensed (does not apply to translations). Kindly email for permission if you wish to extract verbatim original writings, but feel free to link to individual posts.